Tom Robbins | Critical Essay by John House

Critical Essay by John House

Tom Robbins is Carlos Castaneda in motley, Leo Buscaglia in love beads. Like his earlier books, "Jitterbug Perfume" is not so much a novel as an inspirational fable, full of Hallmark sweetness, good examples and hope springing eternal. Its message is a simple one—"it is better to be small, colorful, sexy, careless, and peaceful, like the flowers, than large, conservative, repressed, fearful, and aggressive, like the thunder lizards." While the world has changed substantially since 1971, the year of Mr. Robbins's first novel, "Another Roadside Attraction," his odd corner of it has remained intact, caught in the amber of 1960's romanticism….

Mr. Robbins's style is unmistakable—oblique, florid, willing to sacrifice everything for an old joke or corny pun…. Here and there, like SMILE buttons pinned to the narrative, are wry digressions on plant life and...